Develop Habits, Awareness and Resources
By Gary Davis
Takeaways
Oral Hygiene is defined by Wikipedia as "The practice of keeping the mouth and teeth clean to prevent dental problems and bad breath."Oral hygiene is a difficult habit to acquire. It is easy to forget to brush your teeth and further, kids are so busy the last thing they want to do is take time to care for something that is usually no big part of their life - at least not for a while.That is where school can make a difference. To get ideas for oral hygiene lesson plans we need go no further than the American Dental Association (ADA).The way that students can be approached is transferable between grades. A sixth-grader will be interested but for a different reason than a third-grader.The older a child gets the more they buy into the idea of oral hygiene being good for them on a number of levels. At younger ages they are more likely to do it because it is "the right thing to do."To begin with I have linked to the ADA's site which provides PDF downloads for kids starting at preschool all the way through high school.The program for preschool to first grade has the teacher asking "Why are teeth important?" The answers vary from your smile to being unable to pronounce certain letters.In grades 2-4 activities can include learning how to brush properly, working with partners to discuss and illustrate plaque and discussing what foods you could not eat without teeth.For grades 4-6 it is suggested that children be given an "inventory quiz" to establish where they are on the chart of correct behavior. Questions such as "If you visited your dentist in the last year give yourself two points," give a child a chance to measure themselves against typical actions with respect to teeth. The myriad of questions will allow them to reach between 8-10 points at which time they are ascribed "winners."For grades 7-12 it is best to have an expert in the field talk to the children because kids of that age may try and pin you down if they think you're weak in the knowledge.Ideas for classroom lesson plans include but are not limited to the following:Bring in oral health displays of teeth and mouths. Then discuss what you see; what is positive and what is negative?A guest speaker who is an expert will usually keep kids' rapt attention.I have always felt that the best "lesson plans" include interaction. Therefore I love the idea of an essay writing contest where you provide the beginning sentence such as "It is important to keep my teeth brushed because..."As I said there is additional information at the ADA site, however, it is important to remember what you are trying to achieve. Mainly you are trying to help kids understand the value of oral hygiene; you are attempting to launch them in the direction of developing good habits and you want to give them an ongoing resource.Oral hygiene is a difficult habit to develop. Anything you can do to help is "value added."References:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oral_Hygienehttp://www.ada.org/public/education/teachers/ideas.asp
More resources
- http://www.ada.org/public/education/teachers/ideas.asp
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